Nissan Motor Co. made a new gasoline engine, the Variable Compression-Turbo (VC-T). According to the Japanese company this new type of engine make the diesel engines of today, obsolete.
The new engine works as a turbo-charged gasoline engine, giving as much power as a diesel and hybrid powertrain and at the same cost. The engine uses variable compression technology which allows it to choose an optimal compression ratio for combustion at any moment.
The compression ratio measures the volume compressed of the air-fuel mix in the engine’s cylinder before it ignites and produced energy. A higher ratio means more efficiency, and with this comes better fuel economy. Adding a turbo-charger to an engine of a high compression ratio also makes the engine more powerful.
The engineers normally used to choose between power and economy at the moment of designing an engine, but the VC-T works for both.
VC-T presentation and specifications
The new engine created by Nissan was expected to be officially presented at the Paris Motor Show next month, but according to Nissan engineers, it will be unveiled in an Infiniti Car in 2017.
After the presentation next year it is expected to be used in Nissan cars and maybe in Renault cars, due to their partnership.
Being a turbo-charged engine, 2.0-liter with four-cylinder, the engine will have up to 27 percent better fuel economy than the 3.5 liter V6 engine it is going to replace, the QX60. The company says the VC-T has the same torque as the diesel engine (288 pound-feet of torque) and have a 268 horsepower, comparable to it.
According to Nissan engineers at a company’s center in Atsugi, Tokyo, the new engine is cheaper than the diesel engines and that it should meet nitrogen oxide without treatment system. Infiniti says that the technology used in the VC-T can be used in other engines of another size but with four cylinders, but it is impractical for V6 engines and V8 engines.
Comparison with other engines
The VC-T engine has more power and torque than the 2.0-liter turbo, four-cylinder of BMW, Audi, and Mercedez Benz standard engines. About horsepower, it is more powerful than the 2.0-liter Cadillac XT5.
Although there are turbo engines with more power like the ones in the Subaru Impreza WRX and the Honda Civic Type-R, Infiniti says they are offering a better combination of power and efficiency.
Nissan says the new engine can choose a compression ratio between 8:1 and 14:1 and the diesel engines have a compression ratio between 8:1 and 10:1.
Source: Reuters